I shut down my Windows Server 2008 machine, but upon restart I was presented with as screen stating that:

Windows has failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause...
File: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Status: 0x000000f
Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt

It is a Dell PowerEdge T300 server running Windows Server 2008 64bit with only VMWare installed.

I'm confused. Is it a VM that's giving you this message? Does the box have VMware <something> or Windows Server 2008 on it?
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Ben PilbrowAug 23 '11 at 16:23

Sorry. It is not a VM server, it is the physical box which hosts VMware. So actually all of my VMs are offline. :(
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sbeskurAug 23 '11 at 16:31

Still confused. What VMware product are you using? What is actually installed on the box?
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Ben PilbrowAug 23 '11 at 16:38

Forget that I mentioned VMware this has nothing to do with it. I solved the issue, howevever, since I do not have enough "street cred" I cannot post my answer for another couple hours. hmm.. Kind of perplexed as to how this legit question got 2 tics down?
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sbeskurAug 23 '11 at 19:55